French far left reject National Front’s offer of help

French far-left presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mélenchon won't accept an offer from the far-right National Front to help him reach the minimum number of endorsements required to start his campaign, the politician's spokesman said Sunday.

"We can't stand them, they can't stand us, but it would be unthinkable if he's not a candidate in the election," Aliot told Le Figaro.

He said it would be a "democratic scandal" if Mélenchon could not run for president, as "he represents a real school of thought," French broadcaster Europe 1 reported.

But Mélenchon's spokesman Alexis Corbière rejected the offer, saying the FN is "an antisocial party and our adversary in politics."

"Everyone smiles at this proposal, which is only tactics from the FN that knows how to disguise itself as democratic, and many other things, republican or secular," Europe 1 quoted Corbière as saying.

Corbière called out the FN's proposal as a bluff, saying the far-right party only has 459 elected officials who will need to combine with elected officials from other parties to back the campaign of their own leader, Marine Le Pen.